HC Deb 22 February 1861 vol 161 cc805-9
MR. DAWSON

said, he rose to call the attention of the Chief Secretary for Ireland to the number of resignations which have taken place in the constabulary force of Ireland during the last ten years, and to the duties which have been imposed upon the men without any corresponding increase of pay or emoluments; and to inquire, If any amelioration of the condition of the lower grades in the force is in contemplation? Considering the startling number of resignations that had taken place he thought it was clear that some investigation of this subject was needful. During the last ten years 6,281 persons had left the force in the service of which they had voluntarily engaged, so that nearly one man in twenty had left the service of their country without explanation, and apparently without any advantage to themselves. Looking at the matter financially, and rating the cost of training each recruit at £14 per man, it would be found that upwards of £100,000 had been lost on the expenditure of the nation. He attributed this large defection to the heavy additional duties imposed upon the men without a commensurate increase of pay. Since the appointment of the present Inspector General there had been an increase of the pay of the superior officers, and that official was entitled to thanks for his services. Still the Government might judiciously extend the promotion of these superior officers, not only in the offices of Dublin Castle, but in the general Government Departments of Ireland. But the smallest pittance had been added to the pay of the men under the name of long service money, while heavy additional duties, such as the collection of emigration statistics, the regulation of weights and measures, the execution of decrees for small debts, and other harrassing obligations had been imposed upon them. It was now proposed to put upon them the collection of the census returns. He hoped that some better allowance would be made for that than for the collection of agricultural statistics, for the whole duty of collecting which an allowance had been made, of only two shillings to each man. Experience showed that it was impossible to enlist skill and intelligence at the same wages as daily labour; and, owing to circumstances which had lately transpired, it had been suspected that the spirit of Ribbonism was not entirely extinct in the force. He should be sorry to endorse such a suspicion, because he did not believe in it; but he should be glad if the Chief Secretary for Ireland would state that the whole body was free from that fell imputation. The necessaries of life had advanced considerably in price since the constabulary force was first organized. The prices of butchers' meat, eggs, oatmeal, and potatoes had been more than doubled in price, while the remuneration had only advanced by a mere fractional amount. The whole Vote for the constabulary force last year amounted to£707,561. If that sum were supplemented by a Vote of £45,000 a small addition might be made to the pay of the different members of the force according to their rank, which would have the effect of giving satisfaction and confidence to the men. But it was impossible to conceal that much discontent and dissatisfaction now existed. If, however, the long service money was renewed, in addition to some advance in the present pay, such a step would, no doubt, be a fresh incentive to discipline, and would place the force in an efficient state, and more willing to discharge the multiplicity of duties which the executive had, in its wisdom, imposed upon them.

MR. CARDWELL

said, it could not be otherwise than a source of gratification to anybody officially connected with the Irish constabulary to be the means of obtaining from Parliament any increase in their pay which it might think fit to grant; hut his hon. Friend, who brought forward the subject must, at the same time, bear in mind that the Minister who asked the House of Commons for money for a particular purpose had a duty to discharge as well to the public at large as to those in whose behalf he might more immediately interest himself. When the House remembered that the Vote for the Irish Constabulary, had risen 1o a sum exceeding £700,000, and when they remembered also that the whole of this force was paid by the vote of Parliament, which was not the case in the other parts of the United Kingdom, they would, he was sure, require him to make out a very strong case before he called upon Parliament for any great or sudden increase in that Vote. He was happy at being in a position to assure his hon. Friend that he had been misinformed, if he thought there was serious discontent in the force, or that there was any difficulty in filling up the numbers of the force, or if he believed there was any of that demoralization prevailing amongst the men which, he (Mr. Cardwell) gathered from the hon. Member's observations, his information led him to believe was the case. Whether he (Mr. Cardwell) communicated with Sir Henry Brownrigg, who had been twenty or thirty years in the force, or whether he communicated with that most distinguished officer, Colonel Wood, who had lately been made second in the force, he found the strongest testimony on the part of those officers to the moral qualities, the high efficiency, discipline, loyalty, and fidelity of the men whom they had the honour to command, If, on the other hand, be looked to the representations which were received from the highest authorities in Ireland; or if he looked to the reports of the Grand Juries or the Fishery Commissioners, or turned to those of the Board of Inland Revenue, he found on all sides the most unmistakable reason to conclude that the services of no force were ever better discharged than were at the present time the services of the constabulary in Ireland. His hon. Friend was mistaken if he supposed that recruiting had fallen off. Perhaps, in the hon. Gentleman's own neighbourhood—in the north of Ireland—increased employment, which was so fortunately the characteristic of Ireland at the present time, and a corresponding rise in the rate of wages induced people at present not to desire employment in the public service; but with regard to recruiting generally, be (Mr. Cardwell) was assured by Sir Henry Brownrigg that never were vacancies more readily applied for or numbers more easily filled up than at the present time. With regard to the remuneration of the men, it must be stated that since Parliament had undertaken the whole of this charge, an increase in the rate of remuneration had been made on several occasions; and, as an instance of the spirit in which the Constabulary had been dealt with he might mention that, according to the Return which had been moved for by his hon. Friend, the salary of the head constable was from £60 to £70, with a residence, clothing, and allowances. As he stated before, they had obtained a body of men whose efficiency was not surpassed —indeed, be doubted whether it was equalled—in any force to be found in the world. He himself had seen the recruits who came to the depôt in Dublin, and he had been astonished by the intelligence and appearance of those men, who had not yet undergone the training of the force. It would, therefore, not be true to state to the House of Commons that the present inducements were insufficient to bring good men into the service; and, with the information before him, he should not feel justified in proposing any large increase in the Estimate of the present year. He held in his hand a Return moved for by his hon. Friend with regard to resignations. In 1853, the resignations amounted to 775; in 1854 to 749, and they varied in the several years. The dismissals in last year fell short of the average, and, notwithstanding the special causes operating last year, the number of resignations and dismissals only exceeded by 40 the number in the previous year. The resignations were 103, the dismissals being 58, and that being taken from 103 left 45. Upon the whole, a more efficient, loyal, and faithful force never existed. With regard to the charge of Ribbonism —without undertaking to say any man could be responsible for 12,000 men, or being at all prepared to say there might not exceptions occur—which unfortunately occurred in the case of Holden, who had paid the just penalty of his crimes—every report made to him enabled him most confidently to refute the charge of disloyalty of any kind, or want of fidelity in the force. He had no doubt his hon. Friend had the best motives in bringing forward the subject, but he (Mr. Cardwell) hoped nothing would go forth which would tend to produce a feeling of discontent in that force, or would lead the House to believe that the liberality with which it had treated that force had not been productive of the most beneficial results.